Sociology 90W Senior Seminar

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Congratulations on finishing the seminar. It was a lot of work, and you deserve credit for your efforts. I hope you found the experience of conducting your own empirical research rewarding. I enjoyed seeing your projects develop. Everyone who finished the course displayed a satisfactory mastery of visual ethnography, and some of you did very interesting and original work. Well done!

I have feedback on your research essays. Stop by my office in the spring for a copy.

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Introduction
Historically, urban sociologists research on “urbanization” has included the study of invasion and cultural Ethnicity. Immigrants have continued to come to America and moved into urban communities. Notwithstanding, the operational boundaries that I have researched is not sociologically excluded. As we all know class struggle has always been a significant sociological determining factor that dictates ones position in society.
Nevertheless, within a status position including immigrants that invade a community they must set themselves sociologically in a comfort zone that allows immigrants to maintain many cultural ethnicity variables such as music, culture, art, dance and food.

Introduction
Historically, urban sociologists research on “urbanization” has included the study of invasion and cultural Ethnicity. Immigrants have continued to come to America and moved into urban communities. Notwithstanding, the operational boundaries that I have researched is not sociologically excluded. As we all know class struggle has always been a significant sociological determining factor that dictates ones position in society.
Nevertheless, within a status position including immigrants that invade a community they must set themselves sociologically in a comfort zone that allows immigrants to maintain many cultural ethnicity variables such as music, culture, art, dance and food.

I couldn't place pics within sections here- rather they would all fall in the end so I deleted it. Sent it by email instead.

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There are team rituals that exist prior to the game. (Fine, 1983) These pre-game activities depict the everyday nature of rituals that individuals create. ( ) Pre-game rituals could involve stretching to warm up for the upcoming game. As you could see in the football photo, many individuals are using their own pre-game ritual by the means of throwing a football to another or stretching. From my experience with Baseball, many rituals are conducted during the game. In baseball there’s a batters deck, which is where the next better comes up to bat. The upcoming batter takes in part his own ritual, such as practicing his swing. In the photo, we can see this ritual taking place. Objects, such as bats and balls are rituals as well. The equipment that each team member has is a ritual, where he brings to the upcoming game. In the other photos, we can see players exchanging equipment with another. The physical objects are bringing to people to interact with another. To an ordinary person these objects may not have any symbolic meaning, but to the players they construct these meanings themselves.

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Although sport does have a strong presence with social cohesion, the counter argument could be made that sport isn’t cohesive, because groups tend to exclude others from the activity. Goodger (1986) argues that members who form their own clubs or teams tend to be homogenous by nature. From my observations of Marine Park, I have witnessed this homogeneity to a great extent. The softball players are all white males, and the spectators are white as well. The fact that these individuals are the only ones who play softball on a regular basis shows how exclusive softball is to other members of the park. Fine argues that teams develop a sense of their own culture by forming their own norms and values, therefore every group creates a culture of their own. Although there isn’t a private softball club, it’s evident that these group of individuals have informally established their own group, which is exclusive to others, who are perhaps not white. This argument leads to the fact that cohesion is only limited to certain separate groups of the park community as opposed to the community as a whole. Another evidence is the bocce ball club.

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In sports there requires the presence of others, such as an opposition. (Fine, 1983) This presence of others enables a match to be played between the two teams. From my experience, Baseball had been an individual sport, because each individual plays a certain role. The role of the outfielder is different than the role of the catcher. However, these roles build up to a collective unit, such as a team. The symbolic interaction perspective looks at the baseball teams as a social unit as opposed to a collection of individuals. (Fine, 1983) The generalized other is when an individual takes the attitudes of specific others. (Fine, 1983) When a ball is hit to the outfield, we can see that as an individual act. The outfielder would prepare for the ball to come to him, and then he throws it back in to the in field. There’s more symbolic meaning than this act. The outfielder took the role of others, because the outfielder developed an alignment to that activity. He had to take the role of the infielder, because he would have to throw the ball to him. In football as well, there are specialized roles. There are members who play on defense and offense.

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These photos depict how the participants and the spectators are engaging in social interaction. The participants are the softball players while the spectators are those who are outside of the confined space of the softball field. According to the symbolic interaction perspective, the chanting from the spectators is a ritual that leads to social cohesion. (Fine, 1983) The physical space of the field enables the spectators to be a part of the activity by cheering and booing. There’s space outside the softball field for the spectators to observe the activities that are being taken place.